Workers with Rob Reynolds, Const., work underground to repair a break in the sewer line that services a row of buildings on Front Street. Photo by Neil Farrell
A remodeling project for a pair of small apartments on Front Street in Morro Bay led to discovery of some serious problems with a sewer pipe that serves the row of buildings on that stretch of the waterfront.
City Engineer, Nate Stong, explained that the project, which wrapped up last week after several days of work, was part of a remodeling project at 1108 Front St. That project turned two small apartments into vacation rentals.
“The remodel project,” Stong told Estero Bay News, “was permitted with the requirement to evaluate the existing private sewer lateral, and two defects were found from the video inspection.
Contractor on the remodel job and subsequent sewer repairs was Rob Reynolds Const., Inc. The first problem they found was a spot where two different pipe materials had separated and displaced vertically with one end dropping down below the other. It was apparently the City’s doing.
“The first location,” Stong said, “was an offset joint from different pipe materials. A newer PVC section was installed at some point between the prior existing clay pipe.
“The PVC was likely installed by the city during installation of a newer interceptor sewer main, which crossed under the sewer lateral, and we believe required replacing a portion of the lateral. The City accepted financial responsibility for the repair of this section.”
That fix involved digging out a section of the pipe far enough back to put in a new segment of pipe and match up the elevation drop.
The second break was a simpler fix but made trickier because it was 20-feet below ground.
“The second location is where the private lateral drops vertically down into the sewer main,” Stong said, “and this section was shown to have groundwater intrusion. The developer is having the pipe slip-lined, sleeved, or otherwise sealed to prevent further groundwater infiltration.”
The sewer problem is located near another problem that the City had to address recently, when they discovered that a storm drain that runs underneath the Embarcadero had collapsed and had to be replaced.
Fixing the two sewer breaks caused traffic to be detoured around the work site, which sat at the busy intersection of Beach Street and the Embarcadero. The detour pushed northbound cars into the parallel on-street parking spaces and temporarily eliminated the dozen or so parking spots. It also moved pedestrians out of the crosswalk but only lasted for a few days.
